


It's not easy being green

by bitofageek



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Developing Friendships, Friendship, H.Y.D.R.A mentioned, Past Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-05-30 09:52:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15094289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitofageek/pseuds/bitofageek
Summary: Everett Ross, during his last month with the CIA and the Terrorism Taskforce, finds he's been working for what he'd thought he was working against.





	1. Mexicali Verde

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everett remembers an incident from his early days as an agent, and a hallucination that wasn't.

If it weren't for the events in the Chitauri attack on NYC, Everett would never have thought twice about the (he thought) hallucination he'd experienced from injuries he'd sustained during an assignment in Mexico.

Mexicali, Mexico. 2010:

 

It was an incident that he'd never told anyone about, beyond what appeared in official case records - because it was just too weird to believe. He'd seriously thought it was a pain/concussion-induced hallucination. He and several other agents were working with the Mexican government to break up a particularly nasty human-trafficking operating across the California/Mexican border. They'd been in Mexicali for about a week, and Everett was visiting local medical clinics to train them. The goal was to try to set up a whisper network so potential traffic victims could be identified and perpetrators detained.

Everett didn't have kids of his own, but this human trafficking case was pushing all of his buttons, hard. Add to that, the clinics were often understaffed and undersupplied, making it that much harder for the people who worked there to dedicate time and resources to something that was rather far outside their job requirements.

Everett had taken it upon himself to find out what they needed most and see if he could get his hands on it. He'd gotten lucky and packages had started arriving  on Saturday. By the time he had everything sorted, it was Easter Sunday; he wasn't going to be in Mexicali that much longer so he drove to the clinics himself to deliver the supplies. It was late afternoon by the time he got to the last one. The clinic was short staffed but not incredibly busy. A couple of doctors and one nurse were working - he waited till one of them noticed him before introducing himself. A doctor looked up after finishing with a patient; short-ish, bushy brown hair, somewhat exhausted looking.

"Can I help you?" the doctor asked.

"Hello Doctor. I'm Everett Ross - I'm just dropping off some supplies for the clinic but I need a little help getting them unloaded. Is anyone available?" The doctor looked a bit startled.

"I'm Dr. Bandero. Um, ... we didn't order anything, we weren't expecting anything", he answered in English, sounding somewhat wary. Everett smiled, glad he didn't have to annoy anyone with his just-bearable Spanish.

"Sorry, yeah. I was one of the officers here during last week's training and ordered a few things for your clinic. It just came in yesterday." The doctor's eyebrows rose, and surprised pleasure crossed his face. Everett clarified, "I'm leaving in a couple of days and wanted to bring them over today to be sure you got them."

"I'll help you myself," the doctor replied. "Pull around to the back and I'll open the store-room."

Everett drove the truck around to the back and they began unloading. There was a decent amount of stuff, but they worked swiftly. Once they got everything into the storeroom, Everett gestured to the boxes, "So where do you want this?" He cut off any arguments from the doctor before they started, "I have time to help you put it away so there's no need to waste a lot of YOUR time doing all of this  when you could be doctoring." Since Dr. Bandero couldn't find an argument for that, he smiled appreciatively and they got to work.

"Last box" the Everett said, pulling out packages of gauze to stack on the shelves. The doctor was on the other side of the store room, maybe 8 feet away. He paused from taking inventory on his end of the room and started to step towards Everett when the entire room vibrated. They looked at each other. "What the hell is that?!" Everett exclaimed.

"Oh shit!" Dr. Bandero replied. The quaking increased in frequency and violence, and the supplies started coming off the shelves. "Doorway, now" the doctor cried; Everett nodded and started towards him. He'd only taken a couple of steps when the entire room felt like it shifted sideways and one of the shelves pulled away from the wall, slamming into him and knocking him clean off his feet. The room spun, partly from the quake - partly from his brain being scrambled by the shelf. Suddenly the lights flickered and died, and he could feel dust and bits of masonry coming down from the ceiling. "Mr. Ross!" he heard the doctor yell over the noise of the quake, "Everett!", more cracking and shifting, and Everett could see light from outside as the ceiling started to split apart!

"Doctor!" Everett coughed, "ceiling's coming down, go!" He was screwed and he knew it; he was never getting out from under the shelves in time. He just hoped the doctor didn't try to play hero and got his ass out of there. Everett heard another huge crack, the sound of splitting wood, and then a huge roar. He could see chunks of plaster falling around him, loads of concrete dust that he was trying not to choke on, a burst of light as the ceiling collapsed and... green?!?

Everett was still alive, not squished flat, and hallucinating green walls or something. He could still register sunlight from outside, and yep - that was red blood from the cut on his head. What the heck was the green blob in front of him? He looked up, his head pounding and spinning, and his last thought as he passed out was that he must be seriously concussed because there was no way a giant green man was keeping the ceiling from crushing him.

He woke up days later, in an American hospital, with a concussion, a broken leg, and bruised ribs, being told stories about how lucky he was that a huge hunk of the ceiling had JUST missed him.

A few years later, he was glad he was at home when he saw the news of the attack on New York, because he didn't have to explain his massive shock at seeing the giant green man who'd saved his life now fighting aliens and rescuing Iron Man in New York City.


	2. Gut Feelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everett Ross, during his last month with the CIA and the Terrorism Taskforce, finds he's been working for what he'd thought he was working against.

Back at work, feeling pretty fit, Everett was tying up loose ends and preparing to transition his position to the new Deputy Task Force Commander of the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre. His friend and co-worker, Mica "Mike" Battell, was helping him wade through all the crap he needed to do. They'd known each other for over 5 years, and he was thrilled to have her backing him up. She was a human resources treasure, and she could kick ass in the field if need be. She'd gone through agent training specifically to enhance her performance in managing agent support. On the personal front, she'd been a foster mom for 15 years - and that took some serious skills as well. She had a keen eye for bullshit, a soft heart and brass cojones.

He was supremely glad she was working at his side because, even after being shot, blown up and kidnapped - all within the space of less than 6 months, he was getting pretty disturbed by the fact that Secretary Ross, for some reason, was giving him the creeps.

During the Sekovia incident, Everett had been supportive of the Accords. Heck, he still thought having a basic action plan and recovery process made sense - that's what being a good agent was about. But something had just been 'off' since then. At first Everett had thought he himself was overcompensating for a serious attack of actual hero worship. Seriously, Iron Man!? Captain America!? He was incredibly proud that he was able to maintain professionalism when a good 25% of his brain was trying to fanboy. He took care of business. The bad guy was under wraps. Things were on the right track within the department. Secretary Ross had every reason to be pleased. But literally every time the man looked at Everett, he looked pissed. The problem was, no one else seemed to notice. It had only gotten worse since his return from medical leave. He'd gotten to the point where he'd decided to share his impressions with Mica. He invited her to join him for lunch, suggested "somewhere new" as they left the office, and surprised her by taking a taxi to a place downtown instead of one of the typical office lunch hang-outs.

********

Mica found Everett fiddling with his watch as he waited for her. They picked up their order and found a seat with a little bit of privacy - luckily they'd gone for lunch a bit later than the usual crowd.

"It's been a rather atypical 6 months for me" Everett said - understatement of the year, "I trust my gut, but we're talking about upper level personnel, and I don't see anyone else picking up the same vibe I am."

Mika didn't respond immediately, weighing her words carefully. "It's not just you, Ev." Mica kept her face relaxed, not betraying the seriousness of the conversation, "Promise you won't blow me off about this."

He raised an eyebrow, "Of course not."

"You SHOULD trust your gut. You're good with people. You read them really well. King T'Challa, for instance." Everett nodded, "I do too. It's part of my job. But on top of that, I trust my instincts - some of those I have through training and experience." She paused, cause she knew this was going to sound ridiculous. "you've seen those ridiculous memes about 'mama bears' being protective of their family?" Another nod, slightly confused but still listening. "That man sets off every internal alarm I have. He says the 'right' things to the 'right' people, but something is wrong and I can't put my finger on it or figure it out, and I haven't spoken to anyone else about it because it just sounds ridiculous."

"I have some very basic knowledge about Thaddeus Ross's time as a general, and his involvement with military science and experimentation but he didn't have the clearance to know more." Everett replied, "There's a single-mindedness there that could be considered admirable..."

"But..."

"Yeah, but." Everett went on, "The situation with the Avengers last year, and the Winter Soldier... the more I think back on it, the more I get the feel of a personal grudge then patriotism."

"So what do we do?" Mica asked. "I can keep my eyes and ears open. Flag things that seem off - in such a way that doesn't bring attention to me," she added hastily as Everett looked ready to argue against her getting more deeply involved. "Nobody's perfect. There's something out there that can substantiate what we're picking up."

"Access is the issue..." Everett paused for a moment to think, then he smiled. "I'll see what I can do. I may know a way."


	3. Not on my watch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everett has a theory and it sucks.
> 
> Note: torture scenes are in italics and are quoted from the work "Red Against White" https://archiveofourown.org/works/524094 - red against white)
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING-GRAPHIC (short, but graphic).

Everett didn't have super powers, but that didn't mean he was powerless. He was smart, he had smart friends, and he had a deep desire to protect. It's why he joined the Air Force, why he _had_ worked with the CIA, why he'd helped T'Challa. And it was why he was using his covert skills and connections to investigate a superior. The situation sucked; this kind of thing always did. But when the chain of command was being abused, it needed to be dealt with.

Thanks to Shuri's excellent kimoyo watch (she'd designed the band to look like a regular watch, but it worked much like the bracelet Wakandans wore), Everett was able to start hunting digitally without fear of being detected. He also asked Shuri herself if she could use her formidable skills to gather info on Thaddeus Ross as well - she might find things he wasn't able to uncover himself. He didn't have to wait long - apparently she'd already dug up some info for her brother about his soon-to-be-ex boss. She sent what she had and continued to dig while he worked. He went through the file with a fine toothed comb, getting more pissed off as he read, but feeling justified having confirmation of his gut's alarm bells.

Thaddeus Ross was a disgrace to the uniform. He risked civilians - his own damn daughter - in a delusional quest for "the ultimate weapon". He hounded Dr. Bruce Banner ceaselessly - and abused him when he got his hands on him. Of course the bastard didn't consider it abuse - Hulk was a tool, a weapon, and Dr. Banner wasn't even a consideration. The man was ruthless.

Once Everett got his temper under control, he went back to the files. And then his stomach dropped when he saw the word VIBRANIUM in the research section of one of the files. Super serum, healing factors, vibranium, experimentation on human tissue. "Well SHIT".  Everett sat at his desk, stunned into immobility, for a full 5 minutes trying to process that his boss - his superior officer - was apparently somehow involved in his kidnapping and torture. He knew Shuri hadn't seen this bit yet or she'd be livid. "Son of a BITCH." 

Then he dug back in.  If this guy was working with HYDRA in any way/shape/form, he was a danger to, well, everybody.  Suddenly his vendetta against the Avengers made sense. Captain America was beyond his reach as a hero and civilian - but not as a fugitive. The political mechanizations Thaddeus Ross was capable of were mind bogglingly toxic. Everett pulled himself together and shot off a quick message to T'Challa about this threat, and to request asylum be considered for the Avengers - ALL of them. 

Everett plugged away and dug for what seemed like hours, compiling incriminating information and getting more pissed and determined. He was digging through information concerning Dr. Banner when he came across highly classified DoD files... Doctor R. Bruce Banner, Lab Sessions 1-5, HGYHLK.  He opened the file.

 

_"Test 4F results are inconclusive," said the labcoat dispassionately. "The subject's healing propensity defeats this method, as the muscle, adipose tissue and dermal layers heal around the intrusion."_

 

_"Test 10A," said the labcoat, bored. A man with military bearing, silver-dusted hair, came into shot to peer at the subject. - ROSS _"Nothing more, huh?" he said gruffly, angrily. "Thought you were too proud for this, Banner."__

 

_"Test Series _9_ , sir," said the labcoat with a barely-stifled tone of contempt. "Yes, he can. We took out, in order, liver, right lung, left lung, a section of his long intestine, both kidneys and lastly his pancreas. Of course, we let him heal between each operation."_

 

Everett took a deep breath to avoid throwing up and/or screaming. And then took another 5 and threw up anyway. He'd seen a lot during his time with the Air Force and the CIA. You needed a thick skin and a strong stomach to do the job some days. But never in his life - including his own recent experiences with HYDRA "scientists", seen anything like what had been done to Dr. Banner and he hoped to never again.

Thaddeus Ross was going down hard. Everett had connections with the best technical minds in the world and he wasn't going to hesitate to use them. He pulled every piece of incriminating evidence he had and sent it to T'Challa. then wrapped another copy up as tightly as he could to protect the sources and sent it to Tony Stark.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How I picture Everett's watch. Kimoyo beads would be too obvious in his line of work.  
> https://www.miniinthebox.com/en/p/apple-watch-band-ceramic-solid-links-smart-watch-band-strap-wristband-replacement-for-apple-watch-38mm-42mm_p4499592.html


End file.
